A Legendary Christmas
by Darkblur
Summary: A problem arises on Christmas Eve that was supposed to have a simple solution, but it almost ruins the Christmas spirit for two trainers. After greatly upsetting Flareina, will Rios be able to make amends in time for Christmas? CrystalPendentShipping
1. A Rough Start

**Here is my own little Christmas themed story, set in my Rios/Flareina storyline. I won't say anything about the idea behind this story, since its pretty self-explanatory, but I will say that this story takes place at the end of "The Legendary Journey" a current work in progress. I am doing my best to keep any surprises that will happen in "The Legendary Journey" from being spoiled here, but a couple just can't be helped...Oh well.**

**As an extra little gift, I'm going to place two OC's that I don't own into a cameo role, but those two will remain a secret for awhile. Whether or not you recognize them will depend on whether you've read a certain story or not.**

**Finally comes that usual disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any related characters, they are all owned by Nintendo. The cameos are owned by a fellow author, meaning that the only characters I own are Rios and Flareina.**

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Chapter 1 A Rough Start

Winter time in Vermillion City is probably one of the most beautiful ones you could ever see, and the view from the balcony of a certain hotel room is one of the best places to watch the lovely cold in the whole city.

The fresh, nearly foot-deep blanket of fallen snow covered all of the roads and sidewalks. No cars were out, the snow was far too deep for them, which meant that everything was quiet and peaceful. The only trails being made in the snow were from people hurrying around for last-minute Christmas presents, since that wonderful day was tomorrow, and even then those trails were soon gone thanks to the freshly falling white powder.

Up on that balcony of the Vermillion Hotel, a lone, nineteen-year-old, female Pokemon trainer is present. A gentle winter breeze blows through her flame red hair, and as she blinks her ocean-blue eyes, a small tear falls. "Where did Rios have to run off to? Doesn't he want to spend Christmas Eve with me?" Flareina asks out to the falling snow.

What she said was true, for some reason Rios had taken off early this morning and had been gone ever since then. It was now almost dinnertime and Flareina still hadn't seen a single glimpse of her boyfriend since he left. Even stranger was that he didn't take any Pokemon with him...and she couldn't figure out why. Normally if Rios left he'd at least take Raichu with him, but right now Raichu was playing with Raili, his own girlfriend, and some of the other Pokemon back in the warm hotel room.

Flareina shivers a little then turns and enters the hotel, still curious as to where Rios is and still feeling pretty down.

* * *

Down in the snow covered city, a nineteen-year-old male trainer with brown hair and forest-green eyes was darting between stores, looking for a present good enough to give to his girlfriend. Rios thought for sure that he had a present, he knew that he had a present, but when he checked his bag for it this morning, the gift had disappeared. How or why Rios had no clue, it just vanished, so now instead of spending Christmas Eve with Flareina snuggled close to him, he had to dart through the cold to find a replacement gift before the stores closed.

"Why didn't I check sooner? Why didn't I check more often?" Rios kept asking to himself, beating himself up over this problem that he felt was his fault. "If had checked on that blasted gift more often, Flareina and I would be happily cuddled together in front of a warm fire, enjoying Christmas Eve together...now instead I'm stuck out here in the cold while Flareina's back at the hotel, probably neck deep in worry and sadness."

He had already visited every store that could possibly hold something that Flareina would like within a four block radius of the hotel, but wound up with absolutely nothing. Now he was heading for the main shopping plaza, about eight blocks from the hotel. The shops were arranged around a large outdoor plaza, which was currently buried in snow, and upon his arrival, Rios found a large map of the plaza.

_Hmm..._ Rios thinks while reading the map, _...lets see...Hardware? Yeah right...Groceries? Nope...Cosmetics? Flareina doesn't do that kind of stuff...A candy store? Not for the whole gift, but a few chocolates may help tonight...Jewelry? _A sigh, _Might as well..._

Rios takes a second to memorize the route he had to take to reach the jewelry store, then speeds off through the snow. Once he gets close to it, Rios' eyes divert from his path to check the large signs above each store to try and find the one he wanted. He does find it, and starts on a beeline for the door, but once he's roughly five feet from the door...someone walks out into his path.

"Look out!" Rios yells, but its too late...he was going too fast and there wasn't enough room to stop. Rios crashes into the other person, sending the two of them tumbling through the snow a ways before they stop...Rios face-up and the victim face-down.

Rios groaned and sat up, shaking away the snow that gathered on him. "Uhh..." he moans while putting a hand to his head, "Ow..."

He hears a groan and turns to see the person he collided with lift himself out of the snow. Like Rios did, this other teen shook the snow off of him before standing up. "Ugh...what in the world hit me?" he asks in a slightly dazed tone.

"That would be me...sorry about that." Rios says while standing and approaching the other teen, "It was my fault entirely, I should've expected someone to come out. You alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine..." the other teen said while turning to Rios, revealing that he had red irises that matched his red spiky hair. "Are you o..." his voice drops off in mid-sentence and he begins staring at Rios.

"What?"

The teen shakes his head and says, "Sorry, you just reminded me of someone I knew...a very dear friend." He glances down at a watch on his left wrist and gasps, "I'm going to be late! No hard feelings and I'll see ya!" he says while grabbing a jewelry box that he dropped and ran off.

Rios shrugs and enters the store, eager to find a gift for Flareina. Despite searching the whole store, Rios came across absolutely nothing...he didn't want rings, or necklaces, or bracelets, and Flareina already had a pendent so those were out too. Everything they had was either not-wanted or unappealing to Flareina's likes, so Rios left empty-handed...again.

With a heavy-heart present, Rios leaned against the wall outside to think. _Chocolates are good, but not good enough, she doesn't need any make-up or anything, and this jewelry store has nothing. Come on Rios! There's got to be one of her likes that you overlooked!_

While he's thinking, a gust of wind kicks up, blowing an add from the wall against his arm. He grabs the paper and takes a look, but quickly lets it fly away. "Yea...like I'm going to get my girlfriend some new clothing for Christmas..." Rios says to no-one, "I don't know what to get her...hard to believe I'm going to have to have her go through our first peaceful Christmas without a gift, but I can't find her anything." He sighs, "Might as well break the news to her now...better than letting her find out tomorrow morning."

Rios turns and begins trudging back to the hotel, a heavy heart knowing how upset Flareina will be. On his way out of the plaza, he did try to stop by the candy store, but found that it was closed today. _Joy...now I don't even have anything to give to soften the blow..._ he glumly thinks while marching on.

* * *

He arrives at the hotel after a ten minute walk, then takes another two minutes to arrive at their shared hotel room. _Here I go..._ he thinks before knocking on the door.

_Welcome back Rios...hold on a second..._Gardevoir thinks to him before unlocking and opening the door.

"Hey there Gardevoir, is Flareina around?"

"Gradevoir? Gar, garde gardevoir." (Flareina? No, she left on a walk a little bit ago.)

"Alright, thanks..." Rios replies while entering.

"Garde gardevoir?" (Something wrong?) Gardevoir asks while shutting the door, sensing an upset tone in Rios' voice.

Rios sighs and sits down onto the couch, "Just thinking at how ticked Flareina is going to be when she gets back."

"Garde gar voir?" (Why would she be ticked?)

"Simple, I've got no Christmas present for her. I _did_, but it up and vanished on me this morning. Now I've missed Christmas Eve with Flareina, made her very upset, and I've got no special gift to give come Christmas day to say sorry."

Gardevoir sighs and shakes her head, _Rios, if I know one thing about Flareina, its that she'd prefer to spend Christmas Day with you then get one thousand presents._ She pauses to seat herself beside Rios, _Flareina doesn't care about gifts or presents or jewelry...she'd much rather be at your side with no presents then get one thousand pieces of jewelry and be away from you._

Rios smiles at his Pokemon before replying with, "Thanks Gardevoir...you know what? As soon as she gets back, I'm going to spend as much time with her as I can."

"Garde gardevoir!" (That's the spirit!) Gardevoir exclaims.

With some new-found confidence, Rios now waits for his girlfriend to return, waiting to spend the remainder of Christmas Eve with that fiery but sweet red-head he had fallen for.

Five minutes pass, which turn to ten, then fifteen before Rios asks Gardevoir, "How long did Flareina say she'd be out?"

Gardevoir shrugs, "Garde gardevoir. Garde gar voir garde." (Don't know. She said it was just a short walk though.)

"Somehow, I think she lied...I'm going out to look for her. Gardevoir, you're in charge." Rios says before leaving the room and promptly heading downstairs.

He walks out the front doors of the hotel and looks around, having no idea which way Flareina could've gone. Just when he's about to head off in some random direction, Rios spies the red-haired teen he ran over leave the other set of front doors with a blue-haired girl at his side. Hoping that maybe one of them saw Flareina, Rios heads to them while yelling "Hey!"

The two turn towards Rios as the trainer runs up to them, "Hey, sorry to bother the two of you, but did either of you seen a girl about my height with long flame-red hair?"

The boy shakes his head no, but the girl (who was now close enough for Rios to see her blue-irises) asks, "Was she wearing blue? With a red vest on?"

"Yes!"

"I saw her over at Bayside-Park." The girl says while pointing in the direction of the nearby park, "She was sitting on one of the benches at the bay overlook and it seemed like she was upset about something."

_Great..._Rios thinks while letting a quiet groan out, "Okay, thanks." He says while running off toward the park, "Oh, and Merry Christmas!" he shouts back.

"Merry Christmas to you too!" The two teens yell while waving to Rios' retreating form, "And good luck!" After a couple seconds of waving, the boy takes the girl's hand and guides her away, a content smile on both of their faces.

_Don't worry Flareina!_ Rios thinks while tearing through the snow, heading straight for the park, _I'm going to make up for not being around! Just you wait and see!_

**

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**

Well, that's the first chapter of my first Christmas themed story. I don't know why, but it seems a little lacking...hopefully the remainder will make up for it. I do have a bit of good news though...I've decided on a new name for the pairing of Rios and Flareina! Its CrystalPendentShipping, and I've already checked hard...NO couples have already taken that name. If you're wondering why I picked that name, you'll have to wait for a later chapter of "The Legendary Journey."


	2. A Comforting Night

**A quick little notice, I let time get away from me so the ending part of this chapter may be a little rushed...I have no excuse, I wasn't paying attention to the time. Oh, and sure it looks like this would be the end, but there's one more chapter. It should come up either tomorrow or the 26th.**

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Chapter 2 A Comforting Night

Rios arrives at Bayside Park within two minutes and gets to the bay overlook after another minute. The bay overlook was a pretty peaceful place...it sat on a stable portion of land that jutted out over the bay beside Vermillion City. There were a few benches that sat there to allow people to enjoy the view and several lightposts to iluminate the area, and were currently doing that with very soft light. It seemed almost a world away from the city that was barely several hundred feet away.

Rios didn't have to look that hard for Flareina, the red-head was present on one of the benches near the edge of the overlook and the only other person there besides him. Her head was down, her hands were folded together in her lap, and she was paying no attention to the snow settling on and beside her.

Rios feels a large twinge of guilt at how sad Flareina is, knowing that it was all his fault she was this way, and slowly creeps towards her through the snow.

"Flareina?" He asks after getting close enough.

Flareina recognized Rios' voice but didn't turn to him...she barely reacted at all. "What do you want?" she asks in a bitter tone.

"Is it okay if I sat with you?"

Flareina glances over to look at him, moving as little as possible, then silently brushes away the snow on the bench beside her. Rios is relieved to see that gesture and quietly took his place beside her.

"Well?" She asks in the same bitter tone, "Isn't there anything you wanted to say?"

"Yes...Flareina, I'm very sorry for being away for almost all of Christmas Eve."

"Do you really think a simple _I'm sorry_ will make up for missing Christmas Eve?" Flareina asks while turning towards Rios, showing him that there were tears standing in her eyes, "Do you know how hard it was for me to even smile while you were gone?! It was very hard knowing that you were out there doing who knows what instead of being with me! When you said that you were leaving to go do something, I actually didn't want you to go at all!"

Flareina can't hold it in anymore and finally begins crying as she flings herself against Rios, burying her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around his middle. "I know that it sounds awfully selfish, but I didn't want you to be anywhere but with me for today! It was just so hard to try and enjoy the Christmas spirit without you around! How could you not even think about what being away would do to me?!" She exclaims through her tears.

"Flareina..." Rios whispers while putting his arms around the sobbing girl, "...I am so sorry for upsetting you this badly. I shouldn't have ever left the hotel...words can't describe how bad I feel for making you cry like this." He pauses, "Its all my fault and I have no excuse..." He nestles his cheek into Flareina's hair and pulls her a little closer in an attempt to calm her. "I am sorry...sorrier than words could ever describe."

After a couple seconds, Flareina pulls away from Rios and looks into his forest green eyes. "Do you really mean it?"

"With all of my heart."

Before Rios could even blink, Flareina shot forward and planted her lips to his while pulling him closer by the cuff of his jacket. Her tears were still streaming out at full force as she held Rios against her, and only a second passed before Rios returned her kiss and tightened his grip around her back.

After a good twenty or so seconds, the two separate, allowing Rios to see that Flareina was now smiling, despite the tears that were still falling. Rios couldn't help but return the smile as he gently wiped her tears away, relieved to find that she wasn't resisting. Once he finished with the tears, Rios brushed off the snow that was starting to collect on Flareina's shoulders then drew the red-head back in for a comforting hug.

Despite the warm hug, Rios can feel Flareina starting to shiver in his arms. Without uttering so much as a word, Rios quickly shifted an arm and stood up with Flareina lying in his arms, then immediately began walking back to the hotel.

Flareina, both surprised and enjoying this sudden move of Rios', begins blushing as her boyfriend heads for the park exit. "Rios...you didn't have to..." she says from his arms.

"That's were you're wrong...like it or not, I'm carrying you back to the hotel." Rios says before shifting Flareina a little so that she is more against his chest, "Comfortable?"

Flareina only waits to put her arms around Rios' neck before giving her answer, a very pleased "Yea."

Rios gives Flareina a smile as the two leave the park and return to the hotel, taking no more time than it did for Rios to head for the park in the first place.

He headed right in through the doors with Flareina still in his arms and still shivering ever so slightly. Rios made a beeline for the elevators, only because trying to ascend stairs with Flareina in his arms would be too dangerous, and reaches their room a couple minutes after the elevator lets them out.

Like before, Gardevoir opened the door and smiled at sight of the trainers as they entered. "Thanks Rios, would you mind giving me a little privacy? I'd like to change into some drier clothes." Flareina asks as she climbs out of Rios' arms.

"Go ahead." Rios replies, watching Flareina as she walks over to the bedroom area of their room, closing the door afterward. He sighs a little and seats himself on the couch.

_So did you and her make up?_ Gardevoir asks, preferring to use her telepathic voice so Flareina couldn't overhear.

"Yea...we did, but...I still don't feel as though I've made it up to her." Rios replies, keeping his voice low, "I know that she probably feels like I have, but I don't."

_Why?_

"It was the way she was when I found her...she was so sad, so upset, so miserable..." Rios rests a few fingertips over his heart, "It hurt so much in here when I saw her...I felt and still feel so bad for making her that miserable, that I have to find some way of making this Christmas one she will never forget."

Gardevoir was about to send another thought to Rios, but stopped when Flareina came out of the bedroom, in a completely dry set of her outfit. "That's better..." she mumbles to herself before coming over and sitting beside Rios, "So what did you want to do first?"

Before Rios' voice could answer, his stomach let out a long growl...causing him to blush and the two girls to begin giggling.

"Guess that's an answer!" Flareina happily says through her laughs. "Before we go get dinner, I think you should change shirts...there's a big tear stain on the front."

Rios smiles at the red-head and playfully ruffles her hair before heading into the bedroom to change, returning in about a minute with a dry shirt on. "Ready to go get dinner?" Rios asks, "We can probably find some restaurant to eat at if we leave now." he adds while extending a hand.

Flareina smiles as she takes Rios' hand and allowing him to help her up. "Gardevoir, you're in charge while we're out, okay?" Rios asks as he guides Flareina to the door. After receiving a nod from his Pokemon to show she understood, Rios and Flareina leave the room, then the hotel in search of some restaurant to have dinner.

Most of them are, unsurprisingly, closed due to the day, but after a little searching the two find a nice little restaurant to eat at. They're seated almost immediately, due to a lack of crowds, and are given a comfortable booth all to themselves.

After placing their drink orders, a plain water for the two of them, they begin looking over the menus for their dinner. A couple minutes pass, their orders are placed, and the waiter departs again, leaving them to wait while the meal was cooked.

Maybe a half-minute passes before Flareina could tell that something was off with Rios...he seemed distracted by something. "Rios? Everything okay?"

"Hmm?" He replies, breaking out of the brainstorm he was expericining, "Oh, yea. Yea...I'm just thinking over some things."

"Like?"

"Well...I'm just thinking of how I can make tomorrow special since..." Rios trails off.

"Since?"

Rios takes a deep breath, "Flareina...tomorrow I'm not going to be able to give you anything. I did have a gift, but it somehow disappeared...that's why I was gone all day today, I was trying to find something to replace it." He lets out a deep sigh, "But I failed miserably."

"Rios. I don't care about any little gift. Sure its nice getting them, but I don't need them." She reaches out and rests her hand atop Rios', which was currently resting on the table, "Everyday that we've been together has been a gift...do you remember way back when we first met?"

Rios snickers a little, "How could I possibly forget?"

"Well...I don't know if you know this, but when you performed in that contest hall with Latios and Latias, _I_ was in the crowd." Rios opens his mouth to speak but is silenced when Flareina continues, "When you first let those two out of their Pokeballs, I was awe-struck, just like the rest of the crowd, and that way all through the performance until the finale. Not only was it one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but I was lucky enough to have one of those sparkles fall into my hand. It rested there for a few seconds before disappearing, but it was still an absolutely magical moment."

She pauses for a second to take a sip of her water, "Never before did I actually think I'd be able to hold a rainbow in my hands, then later I met you...the very same person who let me have that rainbow. I know that you didn't purposely have the rainbow fall into my hands, but it was still a wonderful gift just the same." She pauses again, "I guess...what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to go out to any silly old store just to get me something special. You are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and with you I've been able to see Pokemon, places, and so many other fascinating things that few people can even imagine, let alone see for themselves."

She curls her fingers around Rios' hand in a gentle but firm grip. "Its thanks to you that I've had the greatest life that anyone could hope to have...and every adventure that we've shared, every moment we've had together, is worth more to me than every gift in the whole world." She tightens her grip on his hand a little, "I love you so much Rios...so much more than any word or gift could hope to describe."

Rios smiles at Flareina and curls his own fingers around her hand, "I love you too Flareina...in exactly the same way...and I'm glad that I've been able to make your life so amazing."

They let go of one another on account of the arriving food, thank the waiter, and proceed to eating. Dinner is finished after roughly twenty minutes or so, and as the waiter collects the dishes, Rios asks, "So how much is it?"

"Oh, there's no charge sir. Your meals are my Christmas gift to the two of you...it is the season to give, right?" he asks before leaving, not waiting around for any argument.

"That was very nice of him."

"Yea, hold on..." Rios says as he takes a little money out of his pocket and leaves it on the table with the remaining dishes. "A nice tip for him. Come on, lets go back."

The two trainers get up and leave, arriving back at their hotel room in roughly ten or twelve minutes. After being allowed in by Gardevoir, both agree that it was probably best to go to bed...there wasn't anything more to do, they did eat fairly late, and it was going to be a big day tomorrow, so it really was best for the two of them to get some sleep.

Rios allows Flareina to change first, and waits for her to climb into her bed before coming in himself. He quickly changes in the bathroom, then exits while casting his normal outift onto his bag, climbing into bed wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. He gets as comfortable as he could before clicking off the light, saying, "Good-night Flareina." as he did so.

"Good-night Rios." she replies while turning off her light.

Flareina falls asleep pretty quickly, but Rios has a slightly harder time. He was going over what Flareina told him earlier at dinner, and still trying to figure out a way of giving her something for Christmas. He knew she didn't care, but he still wanted to do something for her...when suddenly, he gets an idea.

Rios quickly plans out everything that he'd need, then settles down into his bed...a large smile present on his face. The last thing he did before falling asleep, was draw the covers a little closer...it was curiously cold in the room.


	3. A Magical Day

**And here it is...the last chapter to my first Christmas story. I hope you enjoy this chapter and the little surprise I snuck in at the end...**

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Chapter 3 A Magical Day

Rios awoke with a long yawn on Christmas morning. For some reason, he was incredibly drowzy and it took at least a whole minute for his eyes to open and focus. That didn't really help much...the curtains kept most of the morning sunlight out, so the room was pretty dark. Even so, something felt...different then it was last night.

Disregarding the odd feeling, Rios groaned a little and tried to stretch, but it felt as though something was holding onto him. _What the...did I tie myself into the blankets last night?_ He thought while moving a hand to whatever mass was holding onto him. The instant his hand rested on the part near his head, he knew that the blankets weren't tied around him...he felt hair. Long, silky hair.

Curious, Rios clicks on the light and immediately gasps while turning bright red from embarrassment...

...Flareina was lying there, her head resting just underneath his chin, her arms around his middle, and her eyes peacefully shut. For some reason, she had moved over to his bed during the night.

Once the initial shock of finding his girlfriend in bed with him wore off, Rios relaxed a little in her arms and stroked at her bangs. His touch was soft enough to not disturb her, but the light managed to arouse her after a minute. Slowly her ocean blue eyes flicker open while she releases a soft yawn.

Flareina's eyes shift to look up at Rios and a wide smile crosses her face. "Merry Christmas Rios." she whispers.

"Merry Christmas Flareina." Rios replies, "Not that I don't mind or anything, but why are you over here with me?"

Flareina's cheeks glow red as she answers with, "I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering all over. I came over here to snuggle with you and get warm...sorry if I bothered you."

"Did you warm up?" a nod, "Then I don't mind a bit."

Flareina glows just a little more red then she was a few seconds ago and took a kiss from Rios before getting out of bed, grabbing a spare change of clothes, and disappearing into the bathroom to change. Rios waited until she re-emerged, to change into his outfit, then joined Flareina in the living room before leaving for breakfast.

About fifteen minutes after they left, Rios and Flareina returned to their room with full bellies. Once they got there, almost all of their Pokemon were let out. The only three left inside of the Pokeballs were Latios, Latias, and Groudon, and that was simply because they took up too much room.

"Merry Christmas guys!" Rios and Flareina exclaim to their Pokemon, who all say "Merry Christmas." in their various languages.

A few hours of play are followed by the exchanging of various gifts. There weren't many gifts to give in the first place, mainly because Pokemon have a tough time procuring presents in the first place and it was pretty difficult to keep a gift secret in the first place with this group, but there were several heart-warming exchanges.

Raili had managed to keep a beautiful, lightning-yellow crystal hidden for the past couple of weeks and present it to Raichu, who quickly placed a kiss onto his girlfriend's cheek to say thanks. Leafeon had found a rare flower called a Winterbloom, that had petals with a mixture of snow-white and ice-blue on them, and kept it alive and a secret for a week before she presented it to her sister. With Gardevoir's help, Glaceon tucked the Winterbloom behind her ear and thanked Leafeon with a gentle nuzzle. One of the most notable gifts that was given, came from Lucario and Glaceon and were what he called, Aura Crystals...cobalt-blue crystals with what looked like a small purple fire burning inside.

"Lucario, these are beautiful...how'd you get them?" Flareina asks as she accepts her crystal.

"Glaceon and I made them. I formed a small aura-fire, she froze it with an Ice-Beam, and I formed an aura layer around that to keep it from melting." Lucario explains while handing Gardevoir and Gallade a crystal.

"And you just know how to this off the top of your head?" Rios asks.

"Glaceon, glace gla eon glaceon gla." (Actually, it took us awhile to figure out how to stop them from melting.)

"She's right, the first two steps we figured out pretty quickly, but the last one took us awhile."

Once the rest of the gifts were given out, some more partying was had that lasted until about noon at which point Rios passed out berries to everyone before heading downstairs with Flareina to lunch. Upon their return, various stories were told until roughly 4:00 in the afternoon, at which point Rios drew Flareina with him into the bedroom.

"Did you need something Rios?" she curiously asked, no-one was back there except for them.

"Actually, I did. See...I know that I don't have a present to give, but last night I thought of something else." He replies while taking Flareina out onto the balcony with him. Before she could ask what, Rios plucked two Pokeballs off of his belt and let Latios and Latias out, the two Eons appearing on the other side of the balcony railing. "Would the two of you mind giving Flareina and I a ride?" he asks the two legendaries.

"Latio latios." (Not at all Rios.)

"Thanks guys, I owe the both of you for this." Rios says while mounting Latios and Flareina mounting Latias.

"Latia, lati?" (Where to?)

"I didn't have a destination in mind, I just figured that the two of you could just fly around a little." Rios replies.

The Eons glance at one another before taking off into the skies, Latias following her brother as Latios arced and banked across the gray sky. The two flew around the sky a little before descneding towards the water and skimming just above its surface. After a couple minutes of flying over the water, both shoot back into the air before eventually coming to a stop, allowing Rios and Flareina to get an amazing view of the surrounding, snow covered landscapes.

While admiring the view, Flareina suddenly shivers from the cold air. "Hey Latios?" She asks, "Would you mind if I ride with you? Just to warm up beside Rios."

Latios gestures for Latias to come over, showing that he was fine with it. After giving him a "Thank you" Flareina carefully shifted from the red Eon to the blue one. She crawled towards Rios as he turned around and the two quickly embraced one another in a warming hug.

After letting herself warm up a little, Flareina suddenly pulled away from Rios and looked at him right in the eyes. "Rios...I know you did this for me, but you didn't have to."

"Flareina..." Rios says while placing a hand to her left cheek, "Yes I did. I wanted to give you a wonderful memory for Christmas, so here we are, up in the air with the very same Pokemon that helped me meet you in the first place."

"Also...I know that back in the hotel room it didn't seem like I got you anything, but I actually did." She says while pulling a small, midnight blue jewelry box out of her pocket.

With a curious look on his face, Rios takes the small box and opens it to find a good-sized ruby that was cut to resemble a heart inside, set in a gold bracelet.

"What is this?" he asks while taking the bracelet in one hand and putting the box into his pocket.

"That's a lover's bracelet, one of a pair. They're meant to show that two people are truly in love and that there is no-one else they'd rather be with. That bracelet's partner is right here..." Flareina finishes while slipping her right glove off enough to expose her wrist, where an exact duplicate of Rios' bracelet was hanging. "Promise me that you'll never take it off."

Rios smiles at Flareina before putting the bracelet around his left wrist, "I promise. Now...to complete this memory. Latios, Latias, would the two of you mind using a Luster Purge and Mist Ball?"

The Eons got the hint and fired their attacks to the same point. Like it did four years ago, both attacks exploded into millions upon millions of specks of light that flashed in every color of the rainbow. What's more, is that the two Eons gently flew into the middle of the cloud of sparkles, allowing Rios and Flareina to be surrounded by them.

With a look of awe on her face, Flareina slowly reached out and let one of the sparkles come to rest in her hand, where it glimmered for a brief minute before fading away...an experience that was exactly the same as what happened so many years ago...when she first met Rios.

Flareina looked back towards her love as the sparkles fluttered all around them. She saw his smile, and how steady his irises were as they looked deeply into her's. She felt his left hand close around her right and their two bracelets clink against one another. Slowly she began to move closer to Rios until her lips pressed against his.

Rios returned her kiss while slipping his right arm around her waist. The two sat there on Latios' back, sharing a Christmas kiss and a memory, that was never ever going to be forgotten.

* * *

"So...do you like this view?" the red-haired teen from yesterday asked the blue-haired one. The two were sitting together on a bench at the bay overlook, admiring a winter sunset across the sea.

"I sure do...this is such a lovely view...thanks for sharing it with me." the blue-haired girl replies.

He laughs a little, "No trouble at all. Isn't that what we do on Christmas?"

Before she could respond, a small something drifted down in front of her...it looked like a tiny rainbow. Slowly more of these tiny rainbows drifted down around these two, causing them to watch with a look of awe present.

"What are these?" the blue-haired girl asks while catching one in her hand.

"I don't know, but these are really beautiful..." The red-haired boy replies, and as a result of his distraction added, "...just like you."

Immediately she began to blush, "Uh, you know you just said that I was beautiful, right?"

He quickly turns a shade of red equal to her's and can only say, "Umm..."

The blue-haired girl sighs a little at her friend and leans against him. "Cyphrus..." she whispers, "I think its time I said this...I love you."

Cyphrus turns even redder and says, "I love you too Lily." while putting an arm around her waist.

The two look at one another for a couple seconds, before Lily suddenly presses her lips against Cyphrus'. Despite his shock, Cyphrus quickly begins returning the kiss and holding Lily a little tighter...hoping for this memory to last as long as possible.

**

* * *

**

Well...that's it. The last disclaimer I'm going to write is right here. I do not own Pokemon or any related elements, they are all owned by Nintendo. Rios and Flareina belong to me and Cyphrus while Lily belong to a fellow author (and an awesome friend of mine) Cyphrus Cross. Relax, I already got his permission to use Cyphrus and Lily.

**Hope you enjoyed my first Christmas Story! Until next time!**


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